Letters From Nikita

21 Questions

There was nothing too special about Riley's neighborhood. Almost every house looked about the same as the next one. It's the white-picket-fence and puppy-in-the-front-yard kind of place. Vivian liked to keep their place spotless. She kept a garden in the front yard, and Cameron had been building a patio in the backyard for the past year; it was almost done. There was a swing set for Kayla to play on, too, but to be frank, Riley spent most of her time on it. It was a quite place for her to think.

"Riley, come inside." Vivian yelled from the kitchen window, facing the backyard.

"What do you need?" Riley asked politely.

"There's a letter here addressed to you. Who's Nikita Shin?"

Nikita had to come up with a quick lie. She wasn't too bad at it, either. "My science partner. She doesn't have a phone to text me any research she's been doing. She just broke her femur playing la cross."

"Why is it from Corona?" Vivian was leery about the message.

"She just moved, but she promised me she wouldn't make me do it on my own last minute." Vivian thought that Riley was still one of the the pretty, popular girls, so it didn't really bother her. Vivian was the same way when she was in high school. She was the captain of the cheer squad. Everyone envied her.

"Okay. Better get it done soon." Vivian said smiling, handing her daughter the small purple envelope. Riley smiled and grabbed the envelope and ran to her room. Riley carefully read each word from the page. Nikita had been the only thing Riley could think about for the past few days. Her smile, her words, they all had Riley under this kind of spell that Riley even seem to describe.

"You want to know more about me? You've got three days. Better start writing your questions down now." Riley took this literally. She wanted to start a list of questions just to send to Nikita. Riley really just wanted to stall her. She couldn't let life just slip away. She laid in bed, waiting for Vivian to finish cooking dinner, as usual. To pass time, she was looking at the photo Nikita had originally sent with the first letter. The sun reflected off of her sleek black hair. Her skin was a pail, Asian shade. Riley admired that she didn't bother with tanning. Nikita's eyes seemed to be a never ending abyss of darkness, but in the corners of her eyes, there was a certain kind of brightness that lured Riley in and kept her trapped there.

Vivian called for dinner. Riley went through the motions. She had dinner with her family at the clean and entirely sanitary dinner table. She won buttered if he but mbutother had OCD. The family made small talk, while Riley poked at her food. It was like she wasn't really there. She couldn't help but to scrounge her mind for question to ask Nikita.

"Riley," Cameron called her out of her endless day dreaming.

"Yeah?" Riley asked, shaking herself out of her comatose state.

"Where's your head at, kiddo?" He asked Riley. Cameron and Riley had a special bond. Kayla was always the mama's girl, but Riley would much rather spend the day fishing and playing football with her dad, than staying in the house making dinner and cleaning.

"I'm here. Nothing is wrong," Riley could lie flawlessly, but her dad was the only one who could ever really detect a lie. Cameron understood his daughter much more than Riley knew because they were exactly alike. Cameron cocked his head to the side, and Riley knew her wall of lies had been penetrated.

"Are you sure?" Cameron asked. Vivian looked up from her plate because she knew if Cameron questioned things, it was bad. Kayla finished her plate and got up from the table. She ran to her room, per usual.

"If there is something going on you can tell us." Vivian hopped into the conversation. God only knows that Vivian couldn't keep her mouth out of a conversation.